‘Star Wars’ sets its controls for hearts in China
Print Edition
After a mammoth marketing campaign, growing online chatter in China around “Star Wars: The Force Awakens” suggests the latest instalment of the hit franchise has a shot at breaking box office records in the world’s second-largest movie market.
China is crucial if Walt Disney Co’s first foray into the world of Jedi knights is to earn a spot among the top-grossing films of all time. The movie, the seventh in a near 40-year-old franchise, surged past “Jurassic World” to set a global opening weekend record of US$529 million.
After promotions featuring everything from 500 model stormtroopers on the Great Wall to a pop star dubbed China’s answer to Justin Bieber, an analysis of posts on popular microblog Sina Weibo shows “Star Wars” has been mentioned around 700,000 times since the start of December, outpacing other big hit Hollywood releases in China this year.
“I roughly know the story but I have never seen any of the films in the series before,” said Yao Yiyun, 22, a computer programming student in Shanghai. “When it comes out at the cinemas I want to see it though, especially because I like science fiction.”
Online chatter alone won’t guarantee box office success in China for the film, which has a premiere in Shanghai on Sunday and goes on general release in the mainland on January 9.
But curiosity among the world’s biggest online community could help the film rival smash hits such as action movie “Furious 7,” the latest in a series popular with Chinese viewers that took over US$180 million in its opening weekend in China.
Over a comparable period in its pre-release schedule, “Furious 7” racked up 230,000 Weibo hits, before soaring to over 300,000 hits in a single day when it opened this year.
Jeff Bock, senior box office analyst at Exhibitor Relations Co, predicts “The Force Awakens” will take in some US$100 million during its first weekend in China. Others forecast more.
“The movie is going to do well regardless of its take here,” said Ben Cavender, Shanghai-based principal of China Market Research Group. “But if it wants to target global records then how it does in China is going to be critical.”
In 2005, the previous Star Wars instalment was comparatively unknown in China and brought in just US$9 million in ticket sales. But moviegoing has become hugely popular in the meantime, with the Chinese box office set to hit almost US$9 billion in 2019 from US$5 billion this year, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers.
“(Chinese moviegoers) are very attuned to what happens in the rest of the world,” said Greg Foster, chief executive of cinema group IMAX Corp, which saw the film take in US$48 million in its theaters worldwide in its opening weekend.
Disney, for its part, has pulled out the stops. As well as running ads featuring Chinese pop star Lu Han as an honorary Jedi “ambassador” for the movie and making use of the Great Wall, it has reconfigured posters to enhance the fighter jets popular with local viewers.
But while Disney has been beefing up merchandising ties with China, it still has work to do if “Star Wars” is to truly take root in the country ahead of future instalments, said Chen Tao, head of fan site StarWarsChina.com.
“In the United States there are ‘Star Wars’ comics, games and other products released all the time — helping create an ardent fan base," he said. “We don’t really have this in China, meaning moviegoers lack those close ties with the series.”
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
